Free The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China by Keith Laidler Page A

clan was responsible for the well-being of any clan member–was turned on its head and used to instill terror–a family member’s crime brought retribution on all his clan: whole families might be summarily executed, or exiled for life to the desert regions, solely on the basis of a single individual’s misfeasance. Any accused person was presumed guilty, unless they could prove themselves otherwise, unfortunate at a time when judicial decisions were, for the most part, bought and sold like any other commodity. Torture was commonplace: an individual might be suffocated with weights, submerged to the point of asphyxiation or have slivers of bamboo driven beneath fingernails or toenails, in order to extract the ‘truth’. And punishment for those found ‘guilty’ was swift and (even in the context of the harsh treatment meted out to criminals in Victoria’s Britain) barbarous and horrible and specific.
    Beheading was the most common form of capital punishment, but a highwayman might well be crucified instead near the scene of his crime; grave robbers were placed in a wooden cage and left until they died of starvation or heatstroke; captured brigands were forced to ‘stand in the tub’–balancing on bricks in a vat filled with lime from which, each day, a number of the bricks were removed, the lime gradually eating through flesh and bone from the feet up; the cangue was a type of portable stocks, with the victim’s head fastened into a wooden board so large he could not bring his hands to his mouth and so could neither feed nor drink for himself. The cangue was worn for a few days for minor offences; for more serious crimes the cangue was left in place until the offender died of thirst or starvation. Treason was regarded with horror (as a transgression against the Celestial Ruler, it offended the fundamental basis of Confucianism) and the most terrible punishment was reserved for rebels and traitors–slow dismemberment, the victim’s body being disarticulated a joint at a time until death ensued. 6
    What makes such mandarin-inspired atrocities particularly frightful is the fact that the mandarinate itself was amongst the most corrupt and venal of all China’s institutions. The same huge educational expenses that precluded participation by the ‘lower orders’ was also an enormous financial burden for many of the less prosperous mandarin families. A substantial proportion were forced to take out loans to complete their studies. In addition, the golden road to a government appointment would also require lubrication with ‘fragrant grease’ at several stages along the route, with ‘squeeze’ extracted by those in a position to help or hinder the appointment. Once secure in his new post, all such ‘helpers’ would demand repayment for their kindness, with interest, while at the same time the new official’s extended family would look to him for financial support. Confucian doctrine taught that the interests of the family superseded those of the state, giving a rationale for and green light to nepotism. 7 On the basis of family ties, incompetents were raised to positions of power all over the Empire. Capping all these problems, the pay of a ‘servant of the state’ was proverbially low, and the required Confucian deference to superiors made it impossible to request any increase in salary.
    Given the circumstances, there was only one alternative source of income available to the mandarin–extorting money and services from those he had been set over to govern. Bribes would be taken to turn a blind eye to illegal practices such as opium smoking or smuggling; and ‘squeeze’ would be exacted on legitimate businesses under threat of victimisation. Over time, sanctioned by custom, such practices became the norm and extended to every aspect of Chinese life. Such toleration allowed some officials to amass stupendous fortunes. When the infamous minister Ho Shen was finally brought to book in 1799, after twenty